Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo, Patrick Lane's Red Dog, Red Dog and titles that share stories from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are among the finalists for the 25th annual B.C. Book Prizes.

Organizers unveiled the finalists in seven categories Thursday evening.

Galloway and Lane are in the running for the Ethen Wilson Fiction Prize. Their competition includes Paul Headrick (That Tune Clutches My Heart), Lee Henderson (The Man Game) and Andreas Schroeder (Renovating Heaven).

Downdown Eastside physician, columnist and author Gabor Maté is one of the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize nominees this year for his book In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction. Maté's fourth book weaves stories from his Vancouver practice with recent research about the human brain and compulsive behaviour.

His competition includes:

  • Tim Lilburn for Going Home: Essays.
  • Rex Weyler for The Jesus Sayings: The Quest for His Authentic Message.
  • Chris Wood for Dry Spring: The Coming Water Crisis of North America.
  • Ronald Wright for What is America? A Short History of the New World Order.

The Downtown Eastside neighbourhood is also represented in the nominees for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, a category honouring books that contribute to the "enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia."

The photo essay tome Hope in Shadows, Stories and Photographs of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, edited by Brad Cran and Gillian Jerome, is one of the finalists. The book, an off-shoot of the popular fundraising calendar packed with contest-winning photos from the troubled Vancouver community, also won the City of Vancouver Book Award in October.

Other regional nominees include

  • Daphne Bramham for The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in a Polygamous Mormon Sect.
  • Margaret Horsfield for Voices From the Sound: Chronicles of Clayoquot Sound and Tofino 1899 – 1929.
  • Stephen Hume for Simon Fraser: In Search of Modern British Columbia.
  • Don Pettit for The Peace: A History in Photographs.

Remaining finalists include:

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Karen Hofmann, Water Strider; Daphne Marlatt, The Given; Elise Partridge, Chameleon Hours; Nilofar Shidmehr, Shirin and Salt Man; George Stanley, Vancouver: A Poem.

Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize: Sarah N. Harvey, The Lit Report; Polly Horvath, My One Hundred Adventures; Iain Lawrence, The Séance; Graham McNamee, Bonechiller; Robin Stevenson, A Thousand Shades of Blue.

Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize: Linda Bailey (author), Bill Slaven (illustrator), Stanley at Sea; Robert Bateman (author/illustrator), Polar Worlds: Life at the Ends of the Earth; Katarina Jovanovic (author), Philippe Béha (illustrator), The King has Goat Ears; Chieri Uegaki (author), Stéphane Jorisch (illustrator), Rosie and Buttercup; Irene N. Watts (author), Kathryn E. Shoemaker (illustrator), Good-bye Marianne: A Story of Growing Up in Nazi Germany.

BC Booksellers' Choice Award: Jean Barman and Harbour Publishing, British Columbia: Spirit of the People; Stephen Bown and Douglas & McIntyre, Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver; Cathy Converse and TouchWood Editions, Following the Curve of Time: The Legendary M. Wylie Blanchet; Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas and Greystone Books, Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment; Andrew Nikiforuk and Greystone Books, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent.

This year's finalists will be celebrated and the winners announced in Vancouver at the Lieutenant Governor's BC Book Prizes Gala on April 25.